During an extraordinary time for MIT, our nation, and the world, the following MIT community members have been recognized for going the extra mile to keep our community functioning and safe. Thank someone today.
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Angela Belcher (BE Dept. Head) and Scott Manalis (BE Associate Head)
Angie Belcher (BE Dept. Head) and Scott Manalis (BE Assoc. Head) have been working tirelessly. There are so many complexities in terms of the needs of members of the Department, and they have been incredibly thoughtful in support of all members of our community. Undergraduates, graduate students, postdocs, staff and faculty have all been positively impacted by their care and concern. They have come up with many creative solutions to help, including providing space for storage for the undergraduates, ensuring readily available food for students and postdocs, and sharing resources that can be used for coronavirus testing. Through their very hard round-the-clock work, the Department is running as smoothly as possible under the circumstances, and everyone knows that they have someone they can turn to for support.
-- Bevin Page Engelward, Biological Engineering
Lauren Anderson
Lauren emailed me after hours to ask if we could move the start date of a recently promoted employee who was also transitioning to TN status, which would require a trip to Canada. She and the employee realized how quickly things were changing and in the middle of the night the employee decided to go to Canada that night. Despite the fact that it was 4AM, she got up, prepared the supporting documents for him and got them to him. He managed to get to the border and adjust his visa status before the border closed today at ~1PM. AMAZING JOB!!
-- Heather Williams, School of Science
Leila Kinney
Leila Kinney, Executive Director of Arts Initiatives, has shown incredible leadership during this time. Thank you, Leila!
-- Anonymous
Kim Haberlin
Kim is the heart and soul of the Institute. She somehow coordinates processes that are chaotic by nature, and then communicates the outcomes of these processes in clear, concise, and human ways.
-- David Randall, Division of Student Life
Michel Goemans
He is working tirelessly to make sure all instructors and grad students have the support they need to conduct business as usual while we transition to remote work.
-- Mitchell Harris, math department
David Friedrich
David has been like a conductor moving 3,300 UG students off campus in a coordinated, compassionate, and efficient way. I am proud to be his colleague.
-- David Randall, Division of Student Life
Douglas Weston
In the last few days that I went into the lab to finish up some experiments, I've been seeing Doug working--nonstop-- to perform the rampdown of our lab, including organizing supplies, making sure everyone has what they need, and serving as a much-needed constant in my hectic life. Super grateful for his positivity and promptness in this situation!
-- Evelyn Wong, Synthetic Neurobiology Group, Building 46 (Ed Boyden Lab)
Anne McCants
Thank you Anne for your many hours of selfless contributions on institute committees to respond to COVID-19, your thoughtful and kind responses to the students in your class and to the Concourse community.
-- Christine Ortiz, MIT DMSE
Kevin Esvelt and Camilo Rojas
Kevin Esvelt and Camilo Rojas have been the leaders that help educate and organize taskforces at MIT Media Lab to handle the situation of COVID 19. They had done tremendous work even before the pandemic to ensure the safety of our community through various online sessions, hackathon, as well developing the guidelines for the Media Lab community. One of the projects that the lead is Saving Face, an initiative that aims at creating a suite of easily scaled technologies to help people fight the pandemic by warning them when they’re about to touch their faces.
-- Pat Pataranutaporn, MIT Media Lab
Michele Harris
As our Human Resources Administrator, Michele Harris always goes above and beyond. During this crisis, she's been the glue holding the department together. Thank you!
-- Macall Zimmerman, Chemistry
Support Staff
Support staff have really risen to the occasion, helping students and faculty and instructors move to an on line campus. The new normal would not be possible without my co-workers.
-- Pam Fradkin, Aeronautics and Astronautics
AKDC Staff
Thank you to all our staff, permanent and temporary, for helping AKDC get ready for the campus closure in a manner that ensures we can still serve our community!
-- Michael Toler, Aga Khan Documentation Center, MIT Libraries
Leilani Gilpin (Burton-Conner GRA)
Was a great emotional support to me and the members of B4 during turbulent times and our move out despite also being impacted in many ways.
-- Maia Mesyngier, Undergraduate (Biology)
Andrea Porras
For being a super human in this turbulent times! Your professionalism and ability to champion so many things is exemplary!
-- Anonymous, MIT Media Lab
Dave and Pam Mindell
As Heads of House in Edgerton, Dave and Pam have worked incredibly hard for the student residents there. They’ve been out advocates, kept us updated (including frequent Zoom calls), and made the whole experience more manageable.
-- Patrick McKeen, STAR Lab
Ellen Rushman
Ellen has always been a calming and welcoming presence in the department, but with COVID-19 she has gone above and beyond. Ellen's office door was always open and she worked closely with students to ensure that we could maintain a sense of community during this period of social isolation. Ellen and other staff members organized a final "grab and go" socially distant boxed lunch on Thursday, to give faculty, students, and staff a final chance to say goodbye (in small groups, of course) and she even went as far as to hand write inspiring notes for each box. The first day of full office closure at MIT, Ellen sent an email to all DUSP students to check-in, send care, and share a photo of her new officemate - her one year-old son.
-- Anne Calef, Department of Urban Studies and Planning
Norma (Custodial Staff)
Thank you Norma for your positivity and all your energy, even during these challenging times. Your work is very important and we are very grateful for all your efforts to keep the community safe. Thank you!
-- Brij, MechE, Bldg. 35
Michael Collins
Thank you Michael for all your help in this challenging time! Michael was extraordinarily responsive and anything we as ExComm wanted in terms of supplies, cleaning, etc. Michael was already a few steps ahead of us and had already implemented it! Micahel has been instrumental in answering residents' questions and maintaining a calm within the community yet calling the residents for action to tackle this together.
-- Brij Bhushan, Westgate resident
Naomi Carton
Thank you Naomi for your leadership and hard work and taking care of grad student families at this challenging time. Early on, you took steps to bring the ExComm together and draft a response plan and got games for kids, and led getting emergency supplies for the community. Thank you!
-- Brij Bhushan, Westgate Resident